How are people determining case life, or the number of reloads per case before they discard the case?
thanks

I make a angled hard wire with a sharp edge on the L to feel for head separation. I've had some guns that 4 shots was the limit and others many more. I file a small notch in the rim everytime I reload to help me know how many shots each case has. The straight cases last the longest.

Hubel458 is BIG on case life. He makes only
straight walled cases, some rimmed, some belted.
Search up some of his posts.

Same as srose, i use a piece of wire to "feel" for head sep plus of course look for cracks o the outside.

You soon get a feel for each DR and whether it screws brass after a short time or whether brass used in that gun lasts a long time.

Of course the above is qualified by whether the DR allows you to neck resize only (which meas the chambers are almost exactly the same) or whether you have to full length rezise which of course can shorten case life.

I have had 9 reloads out of some brass.

I'm sure to get hell for this but I shoot to failure--target shooting and plinking. For hunting I use new or once-fired brass but shoot the old stuff at the range until it fails--splits at the mouth or neck or a head separation. I don't shoot any high pressure modern rifles and my experience is only with vintage doubles in this arena. The bottle neck nitro cases such as the .450 no2 or .450-400 3-inch will get between 8 and 20+ reloads. The old BELL brass is by far the best as to longevity. Since I only reload for my rifles I neck size only by adding a 1/8" washer between the lock ring on the sizing die and the press. For straight cases, such as the .450 3 1/4", and .600 I use the same washer and the straight walled cases have shown more than 30 reloads with black powder express showing even more longevity. The bore rifles have the least pressure and I lost count of the times I reloaded the cases after 50. My 7-bore Locke (8 actually) is using the same 30 cases I bought in the year 2000 and they may be approaching the 100 mark--using both with black and Blue Dot. In the nitro I use IMR 4831 which is low pressure and slow burning--this may add to case life but I don't know.

Hell, I even shoot Barnes banded solids in my .600. Go ahead, give it to me. I can take it. LOL.
Cheers all,
Cal

Cal

Are you, or how often are you, annealing the case necks?

quote:

I file a small notch in the rim everytime I reload to help me know how many shots each case has.

Where to you file it? On the backside of the rim, so it doesn't sit against the face of the chamber when dropped in.

JBrown:
I knew I'd forget something in my advanced age--part-timers is setting in.
I never anneal the bore rifle cases. The nitro and bpe between 5-8 reloads. I set them in a pan of water and use a gas torch flame to redden the nicks and tip them in the water with a small dowel.
Cheers,
Cal

I have shot many of my cases close to 10 times some of the original ones. I bring on line new brass and as failures appear i just discard brass. Cracks in neck mostly. Have some brass i bought cheap and it is cheap once fired and brass failure. but the price was right.
I take to Africa once fired brass.
Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanna:

quote:

I file a small notch in the rim everytime I reload to help me know how many shots each case has.

Where to you file it? On the backside of the rim, so it doesn't sit against the face of the chamber when dropped in.

I file the notch on the edge of the rim with a needle file. Just a small cut is easy to see and feel.

Also what caliber....Modern ones like the 500/416 should last one heck of alot longer than older ones like the 9,3x74R. The 9,3x74R is an interesting problem...the CIP minimum chamber size is 5 thou bigger than the maximum case diamiter at the base...ie even if you rifle has an absolute minimum chamber you cases will streach to the limit of what brass is designed to do if the cartridges are within spec. Of course, you can get around this by not full length sizing the cases- assuming both chambers are held to very similar tollerances.

NB...I use only handloads using new components when hunting dangerous game- reloads are for use on the range.